souche

Forms

souche f (plural souches)^[1] Old French çoche and çouche;^[2][3][4] souche is a remaking of about 1220.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman suche, zuche and zouche.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French çoche, inherited from Gaulish *tsukka.^[2][6][7][3] The origin is disputed; the TLFi calls the Gaulish source, proposed by Hubschmid, the likeliest explanation, and it corresponds to German Stock (“stick”) and English stock.^[2][7][8] Bloch and Wartburg explain the western variant ⟨coche⟩ by a very old metathesis, attested from the 9th century.^[7][2] Forms with /u/, such as Norman chuque, arise because the Gaulish vowel was treated like a Latin one.^[2][7]

Diez connected the word with Latin soccus (“wooden shoe, base”), and Meyer-Lübke lists it under that etymon;^[9][3][10] Pierre Guiraud saw a crossing of the two.^[3][8] The TLFi admits only an influence of the Latin word on the vowel.^[2]

Cognate with Old Occitan zoca, Catalan soca and Spanish zoque; the Picard and Norman form is chouque.^[3][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rashi's glosses (late 11th century) have çoche for the part of the trunk left in the ground after the tree is cut;^[2][4] Chrétien de Troyes uses the same form in the Chevalier au lion (1176–1181).^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the stump the word gave comparisons of stillness: gésir cume choches (about 1195), estre comme une souche (about 1363–1364), and in modern French dormir comme une souche “to sleep like a log”.^[2][3] A dull, slow-witted person is une souche from 1561.^[3][11] The word was extended to the base of a plant in the soil (1314), especially a vine stock (about 1370).^[3][4]

The figurative sense “origin, source” appears about 1240, and the sense “founder of a line of descendants” follows in 1376;^[3] hence faire souche “to have descendants”, recorded by Cotgrave in 1611, de vieille souche, and de souche “native-born”.^[2][3] In biology it names a lineage, and a souche microbienne a strain (1964); cellule souche is a calque of English stem cell.^[2][3]

By analogy it named the base of things: a chimney stack above the roof (1373 choque, 1624 souche).^[2] Bakers once kept the longer half of a tally stick, the souche (1690), and the word passed to the counterfoil of a document kept in a register (1808), as in carnet à souches.^[3][2]

Timeline

• Late 11th century – Çoche glosses a tree stump in Rashi's commentary.^[2]
• 1176–1181 – Chrétien de Troyes uses çoche.^[2]
• c. 1195 – Gésir cume choches “to lie motionless” in Ambroise.^[2]
• c. 1220 – The form souche appears.^[3][4]
• 1314 – Mondeville uses it for the stock of a plant.^[4][3]
• 1373 – Choque names the part of a chimney rising above the roof.^[2]
• 1378 – First used of the ancestor of a line of descendants.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records faire souche.^[2]
• 1808 – Boiste records the sense “counterfoil”.^[2]
• 1964 – Souche microbienne “bacterial strain” appears.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tree stump: what remains of the trunk, with the roots, after the tree is felled.^[12][2]
2. Dormir comme une souche: to sleep very soundly.^[12] Rester comme une souche: to stay motionless.^[12]
3. The base of a plant with its roots, especially a vine stock.^[12][3]
4. (figurative) The person at the origin of a family line;^[12] faire souche: to have descendants.^[12]
5. De souche: by origin, native-born, opposed to naturalized.^[12][3]
6. (biology) A lineage of organisms from a common ancestor; a strain of bacteria or viruses.^[12] Cellule souche: a stem cell.^[12][1]
7. The counterfoil of a document, kept in a register or book: carnet à souches.^[12][3]
8. (architecture) The masonry base of a construction; a chimney stack.^[12][2]

Word family

• souchet
• souchette

Related words

• German Stock

Usage notes

In law partage par souches (1871) divides an inheritance by lines of descent, as opposed to partage par têtes.^[3][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 348b
7. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert